


Up In Flames

by stardustandswimmingpools



Category: In the Heights - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Conflict Resolution, Cousins, Crack, Español | Spanish, Family Fluff, Fluff, Plants, Post-Canon, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Ramen, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, a lot of sonny, a stove, also, and btw sonny cries at one point, and that's all that matters, but only sort of, i edited this a lot, it could totally happen tbf, it's not an au, just assume vanessa hasn't left yet okay, lil bit of spanish, sonny and pete Bro out but truthfully they care about each other, sonny being amazing, sonny de la vega my baby child best friend broseph amigo dude guy pal budderino, sorry - Freeform, supportive pete, there's some sonny/pete subtext because i am a Loser, this is basically just sonny, truthfully sonny just loves usnavi, uh, usnavi visits the dominican republic finally
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 11:28:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8100715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustandswimmingpools/pseuds/stardustandswimmingpools
Summary: Sonny sets Usnavi's plant (and pride and joy) aflame, but hopefully he can make it better.





	

**Author's Note:**

> what up everyone i return to ao3 with this fic. This is a prompt fill for this prompt:  
> -> **“i accidentally set your plant on fire and i felt super guilty so i went to the store to buy you another plant but they ran out of the plant that you had and i didn’t know what other kind of plant you liked so i may or may not have bought you enough plants to fill a small greenhouse?”**  
>  1\. it's been on my drive for a loooong time because something just felt _off_ about it but I finally got it to feel right and hopefully it's good  
>  2\. I just really love Usnavi and Sonny's relationship okay  
> 3\. I don't know anything about..........plants, et cetera but I really hope you like this anyway!!

“All you gotta do is —”

“I know, watch the store, water your ridiculous plant, blah blah blah. But yeah, say it again, I didn’t get it the first hundred times,” Sonny rattled off.

“I’m just worried, alright? I can’t be worried for my little cousin?” Usnavi said.

“Sure you’re worried. You’re gonna miss your flight.”

“Be careful,” Usnavi said as his parting words. He ruffled Sonny’s hair, then turned and walked away.

“Have fun in D.R. Yo, bring me somethin’ back! A present for takin’ care of your stuff and all!” Sonny hollered at Usnavi’s retreating back. 

“Don’t forget to water the plant!” was all Usnavi replied with.

Sonny watched him turn the corner out of sight, his suitcase bumping along on the sidewalk behind him, hat slightly crooked. As he disappeared from sight, Sonny breathed out a sigh and grinned at the display of candy bars.

“Finally, we’re alone,” he said, and snatched a Reese’s. “You taste like freedom,” he said to the candy. The sun was just traveling down the other end of the sky in Washington Heights, and Sonny predicted — actually, he knew, from years of watching Usnavi run the shop — that in two hours — when it was 4 p.m. —  most of the workers would be taking their breaks from their jobs and hitting up the bodega for some candy, a place to chat, and another  _ café con leche _ . Apparently jobs could be exhausting. 

Until then, Sonny had nothing to do.

There were a couple of customers here and there, one buying balloons for a birthday party, some tourists who bought a pair of mugs, someone that needed socks, some mustard, and condoms (Sonny didn’t ask, just got their stuff and avoided their eyes), but for the most part Sonny was dramatically bored. Usnavi was only in the Dominican Republic for a weekend, but it already felt like eternity. He wished for someone to rag on. Hell, he’d even take Benny.

The day dragged on until 4, when, at last, people began entering the bodega periodically, grabbing some coffee, some snacks, and some conversation with a relieved Sonny.

“Hey, Vanessa, how ya doin’?” Sonny said, leaning against the counter of the barrio.

Vanessa made a strange face. “I’m alright? I just wanted to stop by and say hey. I figured you were probably lonely without Usnavi.”

“Psh. Usnavi? Who’s that? Man, I don’t need nobody to keep me company. This is a party for one up in here,” Sonny said, grinning. The company was great to have, and Sonny loved Vanessa, but he didn’t want her to know that he was bored, lest she tell Usnavi. “Of course, you’re invited, if you want.”

“Nah, I’m alright. Sounds like you’re having a blast.” Vanessa grabbed a Hershey’s bar from the display and tossed three quarters onto the counter. “Just don’t get  _ too  _ used to bein’ without Usnavi. I expect him to come home.”

“‘Course,” Sonny said, winking at Vanessa. She chuckled.

“Okay, well, see you around then,” she said, and left the store, the chimes ringing as the door opened. As she left, a feeling of emptiness settled back in Sonny’s gut. It wasn’t that Vanessa had left — it was that there was no one else  _ there.  _ He wasn’t used to being alone, wholly responsible.

For the next hour, Sonny’s mind was busy with costs and cash and candy and coffee and conversation. Everyone wanted to know how he was “holding up” without Usnavi there.

“Why does nobody think I can run the bodega?” he complained across the counter to Graffiti Pete, after the rush of people had slowed.

Pete hoisted himself up and sat on the counter. “Man, I dunno. You’re only sixteen.”

“So? I’ve run it before,” Sonny protested.

Pete shrugged. “I dunno,” he said again. “ _ I  _ think you can run it.”

Sonny couldn’t stop the grin on his face. “Yo, thanks.”

“Anytime, bro.” Pete glanced at the time, then hopped off the counter. “Man, I gotta go. See you tomorrow?”

“Sure,” Sonny said, and then something struck him. As Pete turned to go, Sonny grabbed his sleeve. “Wait, man, Usnavi’s not here. Nobody’s at home but me.”

Pete tilted his head. “What’re you sayin’?”

“Come over tonight!” Sonny insisted. Then, to cover up anything he might have been suggesting, he said, “What, you gonna have me be bored instead?”

“Nah, man,” Pete said apologetically. “I can’t. I got another thing.”

He didn’t say what the thing was, but Sonny could take a hint. Hiding the disappointment in his voice, he said, “Alright, no problemo. See you tomorrow, then.”

The door jingled and Sonny sighed. His stomach growled. It occurred to him that he hadn’t eaten anything since a Reese’s two hours ago, and he’d skipped lunch. He was hungry.

The rush of customers had just come to an end, so Sonny felt that going home to cook some ramen wouldn’t be too disastrous. He could leave the store for an hour, right?

He slipped out the door, locked it behind him, and went home. It was unusually silent inside — Usnavi was never home at this hour anyway, but somehow knowing he wasn’t even in the neighborhood made things feel different.

He walked into the kitchen and dug around the cupboard until he found a pack of ramen. Then he went to turn on the stove and boil some water and was assaulted by the leaves of a plant.

It wasn’t much to be proud of, but Usnavi’s single plant stood high and mighty on the kitchen counter, right next to the stove. It wasn’t even a very big plant, though its arms did have reach, but it was the one thing Usnavi could claim to have brought life to. “It’s like if you were a plant,” he would say. “Only I’m more proud to have this plant.” And Sonny would roll his eyes. Usnavi had told him the name of it once, but he’d immediately forgotten, stored in the section of his brain entitled “things I will probably never need to know”.

“Man, that stupid plant,” Sonny muttered now, and stepped around it. He clicked the stove on and went in search of a pot big enough for his ramen.

As he filled up his pot with water from the sink, a rancid smell filled his nose, and realization struck as he dropped the pot with an earsplitting clang into the sink and whirled around.

One of the arms of Usnavi’s plant had drooped into the flame of the stove, and the fire was quickly spreading over the whole plant, letting off an ungodly amount of smoke. The smoke alarm started to beep insistently.

Sonny panicked. He ran at the stove and turned it off, then grabbed the semi-full pot of water from the sink and, with a heaving motion, he threw it over the fire and the plant. It sizzled loudly as the fire died. Water covered everything in front of him. The kitchen was drenched.

Sonny stared at the mess on the floor, the burnt ashes remaining of Usnavi’s pride and joy, and his ramen, unopened on the counter, water beading on the plastic packaging and sliding down. The smoke alarm continued to beep loudly, and Sonny’s ears were starting to hurt. He yelled over the sound and waved the pot haphazardly at the smoke alarm.

Its cover fell off and clattered to the floor and the beeping abruptly shut off. Sonny dropped the pot onto the counter and moaned loudly. What on earth would he tell Usnavi? He’d had one job — take care of the plant — and he’d messed up.

Unless he could replace it. Sonny knew of the store wherein Usnavi had acquired the little sprout in the first place, a couple blocks down, and if he could find a plant identical to the one Usnavi had had, his cousin would be none the wiser.

He set to wiping up the mess. He’d also need to replace the smoke alarm. Maybe he could ask if Vanessa knew anything about that. Surely she would help him with limited questions asked. He was sure she’d made bigger mistakes than setting fire to a plant.

He grabbed a rag and knelt in the puddles of water resignedly.

—

He’d only been sitting at the bodega staidly for an hour when Sonny’s mind returned to the plant mess. He groaned. Well aware that it would weigh on his conscience until he solved it, he decided to just bail on the store and hit up the plant store later in the day.

He knew the shop would be basically deserted around quarter after five, so he idled, waiting impatiently until five fifteen finally struck. He glanced around at the empty streets, then opened the register, stuffed twenty bucks in his pocket, and vowed to pay it back before locking the door once more, flipping the sign in front to  _ Closed _ , and leaving the bodega.

The shop where Usnavi had acquired his plant was just a block away, but Sonny was oh-so-grateful for the air conditioning when he entered. The bells above the door jingled, and the woman at the register looked up.

“Sonny, whatchu doin’ here?” she asked.

Sonny didn’t know the woman, and he was a bit put off when she knew his name, but he just waved and said, “I’m here to buy a plant.”

“Really? Who’d have known?” the woman said dryly, gesturing at the shelves and shelves of plants lining the walls.

Sonny ignored the comment. “I think I have a picture on my phone somewhere,” he said, unlocking his phone and swiping through his pictures. When had Usnavi taken a selfie with the plant on his phone? No time to dwell. It was a good enough image, so he turned the phone around and the light washed over the woman’s face in the dim plant-store-light.

She took one look at the photograph and said, “What’d you do to Usnavi’s precious plant?”

“Look, you got the plant or not?” Sonny said flatly. “I don’t got time for this, I got a store to run.”

“No,” the woman said, affronted. “We’re outta stock of that one for another week.”

_ Shit. _ Sonny didn’t really have another plan. “Fine,” he grumbled. “I’ll...I’ll have this one, then.” He pulled a small plant down from one of the lower shelves. It wasn’t exactly Usnavi’s, but it wasn’t too different.

His eyes strayed to another one a few feet away. It looked pretty similar to Usnavi’s plant, too. Better safe than sorry. “And that one too,” he said, pointing. “And…”

Before he knew it, he had nine different plants lined up on the counter, and a very bored-looking store owner standing behind them.

“Will that be all,” she said monotonously.

Sonny didn’t even think. “Yes. How much?”

“Eighteen bucks,” the woman said. Sonny almost felt sorry, and he would have if she hadn’t been so sarcastic when he’d first come in. Also if he wasn’t paying her eighteen freakin’ dollars.

He handed over the twenty and she slapped the change into his palm. After stuffing it in his pocket, he realized he didn’t exactly have a way to get all these plants home. They weren’t exactly  _ big  _ plants, but there were nine of them.

“Hey, do you mind if I —”

“Whatever,” the shop lady said. “Just take your plants. No other customers comin’ in anyway.” 

“Thanks.” He snatched up as many of the small potted plants as he could carry — four, it turned out — and unsteadily made his way out the door and back to his home. He made the return trip until all nine plants were balanced on surfaces in their house. Only then did Sonny realize he might have gone a little overboard.

He refused to go back to that shop, though, and he knew the lady wouldn’t have given him a refund, so he watched the plants with a calculating stare before deciding he would just put them on all the windowsills in their house, and he  _ would  _ water them daily. Fire-free.

Satisfied, he set them all in place, filled the watering can, poured a bit of water into each plant, and then hurried back to the bodega. He hoped he hadn’t missed out on too many customers. It was only 5:45 when he returned — he’d only been gone a half hour. Thank  _ god. _

He opened the bodega and slid behind the counter just as a customer made their way down the road to him.

— 

It had been a long evening, and all Sonny wanted to do was flop down on his bed and sleep. The bodega closed at 11, and Sonny was dragging his feet, blissfully awaiting the moment when he could get home, fall into his bed, and drift into dreamland. Chaos seemed to chase him when he was alone working. He felt the guilt of the day piling up — burning the plant, leaving the store… what kind of person wanted an employee who just left their shop at a moment’s notice? Sonny tried to ignore the thought.

He finally locked up, pulled down the grate, went home, and got into bed, but for some reason, sleep refused to find him. His mind kept racing with the worry that he’d done the stupidest thing possible by trying to replace Usnavi’s plant, and that Usnavi would never trust or forgive him and that he’d just made a stupid fool out of himself.

And Sonny did the most unexpected thing: he started crying.

The last time Sonny had cried, he’d slammed his fingers in a door by accident two years ago. Even Abuela Claudia’s death hadn’t brought him to tears, and he’d loved Abuela with his whole heart. For some reason, he chose that moment to loosen the tear ducts. After five minutes, Sonny furiously swiped his eyes with his sleeve, only to hear a tap on the window. He groaned internally, swung his legs out of bed, and flung open the window. Pete was on the other side, looking concerned.

“I know I said I wasn’t gonna come by, and I wasn’t,” Pete said quickly, eyes fixated on the fire escape outside his window, “but I passed by and I heard some kinda noise and I wanted to check if everything was alright here.”

Sonny groaned and ran a hand over his face and through his hair in distress. “ _ Carajo, ¡nada de bueno! _ This all sucks!” He stared up at Pete. “Usnavi hasn’t been gone even 24 hours and I’ve already burned his stupid goddamn plant, spent the  _ bodega’s  _ money trying to replace it with  _ nine other ones _ , and I left the bodega like three times today in order to fix aforementioned situation, which I am not supposed to do unless it’s an emergency, and I’m all alone, and plus everyone keeps asking me how I’m doin’ and if things are running smoothly without Usnavi, but they ain’t, Pete! Everything’s just fallin’ apart! And I can’t seem to get to sleep because I keep thinkin’ Usnavi’s just gonna hate me forever, and then I started crying, and now you’re here.” Sonny folded his arms over his chest.

The fire escape was dead silent for a minute. Then Pete slowly said, “Usnavi’s not gonna hate you for tryin’ to do the right thing. He’s your cousin, you’ll figure it out. He loves you, man, you and I both know it.”

Sonny sighed. Then he groaned. “Damn it, Usnavi’s gone for a whole weekend. It’s awful lonely without him, y’know? It just sucks. Everything’s just gone up in flames.  _ Literally _ .”

“Man, you’ll be fine. Hey, how ‘bout I hang out with you in the bodega? I ain’t got a job, ain’t got nowhere to be,” Pete suggested.

“Seriously? Man, you got commissions to do,” Sonny said dismissively.

“Sonny, for real. Just until Usnavi gets back, a’ight?”

Sonny deliberated for a moment, then nodded. “Alright. But be on your best behavior lest he find something to complain about.”

“He always finds something to complain about,” Pete pointed out.

“Don’t worry. I got your back.”

— 

“Usnavi’s home!” Sonny practically yelled two days later, and he tore down the street and barreled into his cousin at full velocity, causing him to stumble.

“Jesus, Sonny, calm down,” Usnavi said, startled. “It’s good to see you too, cuz.”

“Man, I am  _ glad _ you’re home. I got so much to tell you!” Sonny said excitedly, leading Usnavi back to the bodega, where Pete was sitting on the counter, dawdling and waiting for customers.

“Ay yo punk, get outta my store —” Usnavi began, but Sonny cut him off.

“Usnavi, he’s been helpin’ me out in the bodega.  _ Actually   _ helping, not just hanging around. I’d be dead if not for him. Seriously, give the guy a chance,” Sonny interrupted. ”Anyway, welcome home, I’ll take your bags, you make yourself comfortable.” Sonny grabbed Usnavi’s suitcase and began to wheel it towards their house. “Be right back, Pete!”

Pete flashed a thumbs up and started to ring up a customer that had just arrived. Usnavi watched in awe as he handled her purchase smoothly, then went back to leaning on the counter. It hadn’t once occurred to him to give Graffiti Pete a chance.

He followed Sonny into the house, where a shocking sight awaited him. Surrounding him, on all the windowsills, were nine different potted plants. None of them were his, though.

“Sonny,” he said slowly, “where’s my plant?”

“Funny story,” Sonny began, chuckling good-naturedly. “IburneditandIboughtyouninenewplantstomakeupforitsorryIswearI’llpayyouback.”

Usnavi’s eyes widened. “You burned my plant?  _ Carajo _ , Sonny, I ask for one thing! I gotta be able to trust you if I’m gonna leave you at home by yourself!”

“You can! It was an accident, the stupid thing caught on the stove. I’m responsible, I swear,” Sonny insisted.

“Then why is  _ Graffiti Pete  _ runnin’ the bodega right now?” Usnavi challenged.

“Because I got lonely, alright?” Sonny said sharply. “And he offered to keep me company.”

Usnavi cocked his head. “Lonely? I thought you wanted responsibility. It’s all you ever harass me about. And — well, okay, not  _ all  _ you ever harass me about, but business-wise! What gives?”

“I dunno, man,” Sonny mumbled. “I just missed you, okay? Don’t get your panties in a twist.”

Usnavi grinned. “Aw, my lil cuz missed me!” He reached out to ruffle Sonny’s hair, and Sonny ducked out of his way.

“ _ Calláte _ ,” he grumbled. “So are we good about the plant?”

Usnavi looked around their apartment. “Man, I don’t care about the plant, I just wish you hadn’t bought  _ nine  _ new ones to replace it. It wasn’t that important to me.”

Sonny’s jaw nearly hit the floor. “You mean I spent eighteen bucks on that boring plant shop lady for nothin’?”

“You spent eighteen bucks?” Usnavi countered.

“Glad to have you back!  Gotta go, I’ll tell Vanessa, bye,” Sonny said quickly, and he hurried out the door.

Usnavi chuckled and watched him go. Never in a million years would he admit that he’d kind of missed Sonny, too.

**Author's Note:**

> hope u deeply enjoyed it! I know it's long I'm kind of sorry but not really because it's also not terrible. so let me know what you thought, you can find me on tumblr @vivilevone or @justcuzfandoms and feel free to yell about in the heights with me and also feel free to leave nice comments in my inbox it makes me feel loved OKAY GOODBYE!! cheers


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